One of the primary causes of my carpal tunnel was too much typing. For years and years, I worked long days typing, hunched over my keyboard, laying on the couch with my laptop, basically all the worst ergonomic choices I could make. My carpal tunnel symptoms built up over years of overuse and bad ergonomics.
If I had only had an ergonomic keyboard, and paid a little better attention to my posture and ergonomics, I probably could’ve avoided carpal tunnel entirely. Once I was diagnosed, I spent some time trying to find the best keyboard for my needs. I settled on the Kinesis Freestyle2 Blue keyboard for Mac (they also have a PC version)
Reasons why I like this keyboard
Ergonomics
The Kinesis keyboard comes with a flexible separation between the two halves of the keyboard, which means it can be tilted out a natural direction. I sit at my desk with my elbows comfortably out, and my arms are both pointed inwards towards the keyboard. The keyboard can be easily adjusted to accommodate my correct posture.
Shortcut keys
It also has some really helpful buttons on the keyboard that reduce the number of key commands I have to type. When my carpal tunnel is really flared up, just typing command-c and command-v is painful. This keyboard has one touch buttons for common commands like copy and paste, backward/forward navigation in web browsers, and all the standard Mac OS controls that you’re looking for (brightness, volume level, play/pause, etc.) the PC version seems to have equivalents as well
Connectivity and Battery
I wanted to find a keyboard that would work with multiple devices, with the Kinesis I can connect the keyboard to my laptop, tablet, and phone – and easily switch between them in seconds.
I also really like that it has a rechargeable battery so I’m not always looking for AA batteries. Another plus is that the keyboard can actually be used well it’s being charged by the standard micro USB cable. I find that the built-in battery lasts weeks between charges.
Travel
This keyboard has a hardware off switch so it’s easy to pack it in my suitcase and not worry about it turning on and connecting to anything.
Check out the Kinesis keyboard